Eh, Gundam is Japan's Star Wars. Released about the same timeframe (late 70's), tons of sequels and spinoffs, etc.

Evangelion is what happens when someone does a very successful riffs on the genre that Gundam is the most prolific example of.

probably closer to the 90's Batman: The Animated Series

ostensibly a kids show, but wayyyy darker and which has had a huge impact on later fandoms

> Evangelion is Japans star wars

Which is funny to say because Star Wars is actually the Western version of samurai movies (especially but not exclusively Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress).

That's the movie that Lucas is pretty open about heavily drawing "inspiration" from (all the way down to specific characters and plot beats) but Hidden Fortress is itself part of a larger genre of similar stories.

Evangelion is so mega overrated of an anime im experiencing second hand embarrassment on behalf of Japan for letting its national personaification be exlempified by shinji.